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American Flag cake!

I first saw this idea when I stumbled onto this cake from Glorious Treats. I absolutely loved the idea and just had to try it out for myself. Turned out pretty well I'd say!

It was actually super easy, just a little bit time consuming. For the cake batter, all I used was two boxes of white cake mix. I prepared it according to the package instructions but added food color to get red and blue colored cake. I used all the batter from one box to make the red, plus a little added from the second box. Then the remaining was half blue and half left white. 

Assembly is pretty easy, the only layer you actually have to cut into is the top. The circles can be cut by using a cookie cutter or a glass to imprint the right size, followed by a knife to cut it out with. After baking and assembling, you will have a red outer circle ring and a blue inner circle. You can obviously do whatever you want with the remaining cake, but my suggestion would either be to mix it with some frosting and make cake balls, or just eat it. Probably just eat it.

For the decorations on top, all I did was melt red, white, and blue candy melts inside of a disposable plastic bag in the microwave. Now when you're doing this, only melt for maybe 15 seconds at a time, then take the bag out and knead the chocolate together before placing back in the microwave. When its melted throughout, snip the corner of the bag and drizzle squiggles onto a lined sheet of wax paper. Refrigerate until set. 

The idea behind the chocolate squiggles was to resemble fireworks a little and capture the overall excitement of the 4th of July. I also added sprinkles! While I was assembling, yes, many of the chocolate squiggles broke, but I had made plenty to replace the broken ones with.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

       Hello Everyone. I want to start by saying that I'm back for real this time. I recently realized that I hadn't blogged in well over a year. I'm 15 now. I've still been baking though so I don't know what my deal is. Also, I appreciate how nice and encouraging everyone has been towards me! I think the main reason I gave up for so long was that I was so intimidated by the perfection from blogs like Bakerella or Sprinkle Bakes, and I was sort of lazy. I've also been busy with other things. But I'm going to start blogging again for those 1or 2 people that might occasionally read my blog.

      Ok enough blabber. I love all things red velvet: cake, cake balls, whoopie pies, cheesecake, even Duff Goldman's ice cream that I'm kind of obsessed with. Good stuff. So one day I was thinkin that I've never made homemade red velvet cake... I know right? So I got online and started my search. I settled on this recipe from the Magnolia Bakery because well, it's from the Magnolia Bakery. Spotted on The Sweetest Kitchen (fabulous blog btw). I got tons of compliments. It made around 3 dozen cupcakes for me.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
3 1/3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons red food coloring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well. In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overheat.

In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

For a 9 inch 3 layer cake: Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

For approx. 3 dozen cupcakes: Bake for about 18-22 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of  cupcake comes out clean.

I frosted my cupcakes with my favorite cream cheese frosting. I may have doubled it for this recipe. I don't remember, but I also use this frosting for my Oreo cupcakes and coconut cupcakes.

Ingredients

1 package softened cream cheese (8 ounces)

3/4 cup softened butter (room temp)

1/2 tsp vanilla (I usually add way more)
1/2 tsp almond extract (I don't add this for all recipes, sometimes I use coconut flavoring)
2 3/4 cup powdered sugar (That's the original recipe, but I pipe it on so I always add more. Sometimes up to 6 cups to get the right consistency. Yes it's pretty sweet.)
Directions
In a large bowl beat the first four ingredients until smooth. Gradually add as much powdered sugar as needed for the consistency you want. Then pipe that bad boy on.

Have a good day now :) I look forward to your comments!

Hello Cupcakers!

      Hello Everyone! I would like to apologize for my lack of posting. To my surprise, some of you actually missed me! Have no fear, I'm back and ready to share more sweet treats with you all! I would love to hear any and all of your suggestions. Take care!

Homemade Marshmallows!!!

Once you try these delicious homemade marshmallows, you'll never go back to the store-bought ones! They're easier than you think!
 3 envelopes of unflavored Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar for dredging

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for several minutes. In the meantime, combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla (or another flavor) and incorporate into mixture. Scrape into a 9 x 9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly.
(Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper). After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.

Let the marshmallow sit for a few hours, preferably overnight. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners' sugar and cut into squares with a greased Knife or scissors. Dredge (isn't that the weirdest word!?) each piece of marshmallow in confectioners' sugar.

I dipped some in Fudge!

(The fudge was just equal parts Melted Semi-Sweet Chocolate & Chocolate Frosting)
Good Luck!

Want S'more? Cupcakes that is!

These S'mores cupcakes really do taste like s'mores! For the frosting I whipped up some homemade Marshmallows (Recipe coming soon!) and spread them on the cupcakes.

S'more Cupcakes

Makes 24

1 "Family Size" box Pillsbury Fudge Brownies

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

--------------------------------------
20 graham crackers

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/2 sugar

1 bag mini chocolate chips

2 Hershey Bars

Start by preheating you oven to 350 degrees, & line your muffin pans with 24 cupcake wrappers. making the brownie mix according to package instructions, but use 3 eggs instead of 2 for cake-like brownies. Set aside.

For the Grahm Cracker "Crust", combine graham crackers and sugar in food processor, pulse until crackers are crushed into small even crumbs. Slowly add melted butter a little at a time, pulsing after each addition until you get a mixture that's still crumbly, but firm when pressed. Drop a Tablespoon of the crumbs into each cupcake liner & press them down with a small glass. I used a Mini-Tart Shaper from Pampered Chef. On top of that, sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of mini chocolate chips. Pop that into the oven for 5 minutes to firm the crust & start melting the chocolate chips.

Remove the pans from the oven & fill them 3/4 full with the brownie batter. Then, sprinkle another teaspoon of mini chocolate chips & another Tablespoon of the Graham Cracker mixture. Place pans back in the oven & bake for about 20 minutes.

 When they come out they'll look like this! Now you have to decide what you want to do for the frosting.

You can whip up some of Martha Stewart's Marshmallow Frosting.

Or you can spread on a little Marshmallow Fluff & stick a big marshmallow on top like Rebecca from Homemaker's Habitat did.

Or spread on some homemade marshmallow like I did, then stick on a Hershey's piece & Your done!

Happy Baking!

Oreo Truffles

I absolutely love all things Oreo. So when I first saw these I had to make them right away!

You Need:

1 package of softened Cream Cheese

44 Oreo Cookies
White Almond bark for dipping.

Crush the Oreos in a food processor (filling and all) until they are fine crumbs.

Add your cream cheese to the cookie cumbs and mash them together with the back of a spoon (or your hands).

Shape them into 1 inch balls with a mini ice-cream scooper and refrigerate for a couple hours before you dip them into Almond Bark. Store them in the refrigerator.
These won't last long!

Chocolate Overload Cupcakes & Breast Cancer Awareness

These fabulous looking cupcakes are made with homemade Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache AND Chocolate Mousse Frosting. I've been meaning to share the recipe for my Chocolate Mousse Frosting since I featured it on my Chocolate Candy Bar Surprise Cupcakes. The recipe is super easy!

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Milk

1 box of Chocolate Pudding Mix

1 Container of Cool Whip

All you need to do is Whisk together the milk and pudding mix, and then add the Cool Whip (make sure that the Cool Whip is room temperature). You could also use different flavors of pudding mix if you like.

As you also may know, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So bake some Pink cupcakes to show your Support!

Happy Baking!

Cookie Dough Pie

If you like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (and I'm sure you all do), you'll love this!

This is the easiest thing you'll ever make!

I know this isn't baking, but I just have to share this recipe because it's super easy! I stumbled onto this recipe from Leisl's Confection Dissection (a really great blog), and I knew I had to make it! The recipe is originally from Big Red Kitchen. If you have 5 minutes, you can easily throw this together & pop it in the fridge!

You will need*:

Cool Whip

Store bought Chocolate Chip Cookies

(I used Keebler because they're thicker than Chip's Ahoy.)

Several cups of Milk

(enough for dipping the cookies)

Optional: Chocolate Syrup or Chocolate Chips

*The amounts of the ingredients vary, so have extra on hand

Quickly dip cookies in milk, shake off the excess milk and layer them in a 9 inch pie plate, or another glass dish. Break up the cookies to fill any gaps. Once the first layer is complete, top with a thin layer of Cool Whip. Repeat twice more making last layer of Cool Whip a bit thicker.

Garnish with Chocolate Syrup, Chocolate Chips, or some Cookie Crumbs if desired. Place in the fridge several hours before serving.

Here is an image of Robin Sue's Cookie Dough Pie

(From Big Red Kitchen)

Good Luck!!

Cookie Dough Brownies

These are SO good & SO easy to make!

I first saw these on Bakerella's blog. I wanted to make them really bad, but I forgot about the recipe and just recently stumbled onto it again. I'm glad I did because I don't know what the world would be like without these! I love you Betty!

You will need:

1 box Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge Supreme brownie mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs

1 pouch Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg


Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease the bottom of a glass 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray, or grease with shortening. Make brownie mix as directed on the box, using oil, water and 2 eggs. Spread the brownie batter in your pan.

Make cookie mix as directed on pouch, using butter and 1 egg. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batterPress the dough down lightly. (You can also just spread the cookie dough on top.)

(You May think ^these^ look burnt, but that's how they should look.)

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool on cooling rack 30 minutes.

Once the brownies are cool, pour on the Chocolate Ganache (or you can use regular chocolate frosting) & wait several hours for it to set up. ENJOY!

Chocolate Ganache

12 oz. of chocolate chips (1 bag)

6 Tablespoons butter

3/4 Cup Whipping Cream

Melt the butter in a pan with the Whipping Cream over Medium Heat. Once that starts boiling, stir in the Chocolate Chips until Smooth. Pour it on your brownies!!

These Fabulous Cookie Dough Brownies were baked by the Fabulous Rhiannon of Pink Sugar Desserts

And these were baked by the always fabulous

Bakerella!

Happy Baking!

Mini Oreo Cheescakes

Cookies and Cream Mini Cheesecakes from

Martha Stewart Cupcakes

As soon as I saw this recipe from The Busty Baker (Originally from Martha Stewart Cupcakes) I knew I had to make them for my mom's birthday! She loved them! Well at least she said she did, and that's good enough for me! My brother ate the most of them though.

Ingredients:

42 Oreos or other cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies

(30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped)

2 pounds cream cheese (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs room temperature (lightly beaten)

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners, or if you use aluminum foil liners (like I did), you dont need muffin tins. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in the vanilla. Dump eggs in gradually, and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand with a rubber spatula.

Divide batter evenly among cookie filled cups, fill each almost to the top. (You can also sprinkle extra Oreo crumbs on top before baking.) Bake until the the filling is set, this will take approximately 22 minutes. Remember to rotate the cheesecakes halfway through. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Candy Bar Surprise Cupcakes!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse Frosting and a Candy bar Surprise inside!

This is a Fun and Simple Recipe Idea to use for any occasion!

Start by making your favorite Standard Cupcake Recipe, but don't fill up the Cupcake Liners quite as full as you normally do. Once you fill up your cupcake liners, insert a small bite-size candy bar of your choice (I used 3 Musketeers, but you could use Snickers or Milky Way as well). If you can't find the bite-size candy bars, you can cut the Fun-Size bars in half like I did.

Yummy!

I frosted mine with my Special Chocolate Mousse Frosting! (Recipe coming Soon!)

Happy Cupcaking!

Whoopie Pies!

These are SO good!

I made these a few years back, and I recently stumbled upon the recipe and decided to make them again! I did change the filling recipe by not adding as much shortening, but adding more marshmallow cream. They are surprisingly easy to make, and they taste just like Oreo Cakesters! (Even my super picky brother liked them!)

First Come the cookies!
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup milk

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all of the ingredients together until well mixed, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and drop the dough, one Tablespoon at a time onto an gaeased cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 5-10 minutes. While the cookies cool, make the filling.

Creamy, Fluffy, & Gooey Filling!

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 1/2 cups marshmallow cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 to 6 tablespoons milk

Beat the shortening, sugar, marshmallow cream, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of the milk together until fluffy. Add more milk if needed. Spoon a generous dollop of filling on half of the cooled cookies, and place another cookie on top to make a sandwich.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies!

Yummy Melt-in-your-Mouth Chocolate Meringues!

This recipe is from Taste of Homes' Best Loved Cookies & Bars. This is the first time I've made Meringues & I think they turned out great! (I think mine looked better than the Test Kitchen's.)

Ingredients:

3 Egg Whites

1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tarter

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Sugar

3 Tablespoons baking Cocoa

3 Tablespoons mini Semisweet Chocolate Chips (optional)
3 Tablespoons finely crushed Walnuts or Almonds (optional)

Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl & let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Beat egg whites on high until foamy. Add salt and cream of tarter until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff peaks form (about 6 minutes). Beat in cocoa and fold in chocolate chips or nuts if desired.

Cut a hole in the corner of a pastry bag and insert a Large Round or Star Shaped Pastry Tip. Fill the bag with the meringue. Squeeze out hearts or round star shapes about 2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Remove meringues and place on wire racks to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Happy Baking!

(For info on Egg White's and their various stages, click HERE)